![Kavango ravaged]()
Kavango ravagedPrecious timber spirited to China by the shipload Unchecked logging of precious indigenous trees by Chinese syndicates is continuing unabated in the two Kavango regions.
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CATHERINE SASMAN
The ongoing tree-felling in the Kavango regions is government-sanctioned and Chinese wood-loggers say they are in actual fact doing the local population a favour by helping them to develop their farmland.
Local observers, however, have over the last number of weeks raised concern over what they view as continued and unchecked logging of precious indigenous trees by Chinese syndicates.
A snapshot of what is happening on the ground shows that the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry allows the harvesting of particularly teak, kiaat and African rosewood, presumably to allow small-scale commercial farmers (SSCFs) in the regions to become agriculturally productive.
By 2 November as many as 161 farmers in the Kavango East Region had applied for harvesting permits for timber and 161 permits were granted.
Agriculture ministry permanent secretary, Percy Misika, said the permits were granted because the forest inventory was approved by the forestry authority and the number of harvesting permits were derived from a “calculated allowable cut”.
The inventory was drawn up by the farmers and verified by forest officials.
According to the ministry’s Rundu office, 130 logging permits were issued for a maximum of 600 trees per species. Officials at this office, who preferred anonymity, said the harvesting permits are issued every five years to ensure the sustainability of the tree species.
These officials acknowledged that the permits were issued for protected species, but said allowable cuts were predetermined.
An official at the ministry’s Nkurenkuru office said only two harvesting permits for Kavango East have been issued so far.
The harvesting period, according to ministerial officials, stretch over a three-month period.
Observers, however, claim harvesting happens all the time and that deforestation is occurring at an alarming rate.
Grave concerns
The land reform ministry in mid-2016 approved 99-year leaseholds for Kavango farms.
The farmers were given permission to use the forestry resources on allocated lands to “develop” their farms, put up fencing, drill waterholes, and add livestock.
The evidence of agricultural development is difficult to see, but this has clearly come at a price for the trees. Some locals, however, think the harvesting of trees is more sustainable than the traditional practice of burning fields to clear land.
Others, however, say an unsustainable situation is developing because the harvesting of trees has become an alternative income for small-scale farmers, while farming is not seriously pursued.
“All farmers run to get harvesting permits because of the weak economy and because of the closure of Meatco. They cannot market their cattle and now want to live off the trees,” one observer said.
Forestry officials, however, do not seem concerned about deforestation.
“What we are doing is thinning out selected trees, not clearing the forest. The natural vegetation will renew itself; that is why we issue total allowable harvests,” an official said.
Misika said the ministry has no obligation to sell the timber on occupied farms, but has the responsibility to “regulate the appropriate use by the land occupier”.
“The land is under the use of such a person for a 99-year leasehold. Hence, the land is treated privately-owned by the legal occupier. He/she has the right to sell such forest products, as per the market value and demand,” Misika said.
The economics of losing out
However, concerns are being expressed that Namibia is not getting its fair share from the harvested trees.
As far as the agriculture ministry is concerned, its role starts with the issuance of permits and inspections - however irregular - to stop illegal or overharvesting.
In monetary terms, the ministry gets N$100 out of this - N$60 for a harvesting permit and N$20 each, respectively, for transport and marketing permits.
It seemingly has nothing to do with the rest of the trade in the valuable timber.
A forestry official explained that the farmer gets an ‘investor’ - a logger - to cut the trees. The farmer and logger decide on the price at which the tree is to be sold. Typically the price ranges between N$300 and N$450, depending on the distance the tree is found from a tar road.
Sources claim that the trees are then sold at Walvis Bay to a Chinese buyer, who pays around N$12 000 per cubic metre for the timber.
This means that the local farmer gets between N$180 000 to N$270 000 for selling 600 trees. The Chinese ‘investor’ gets more than N$3 million for the trees.
“Where is the relationship?” an irate local observer said. “Why does the government not see to it that the real beneficiation occurs locally?”
Log piles
An aerial view of the Ncaute area does not show large-scale deforestation, except for patches of fields that have been burnt to generate grasslands for cattle farming. At one spot, a truck and smaller vehicles could be seen collecting piles of timber that have clearly been cut recently.
However, at ground level a burgeoning trade in timber - be it legal or legal - is clearly evidenced by the timber piling up along national roads and huge trucks regularly seen stacked to the hilt with logs.
Recent evidence showed logs piled along the Mpungu/Okongo road, some allegedly found to be too small to be harvested.
A forestry officer at Nkurenkuru, however, contested this, saying smaller cuts of wood could be of branches cut off from bigger trees.
The requisite sizes for harvesting depends on who one speaks to. The Nkurenkuru forestry office said the allowable harvested size is 55 centimetres in diameter. The Rundu office said it is 45 centimetres.
A Chinese logger based at Nkurenkuru, whose company harvested the trees along the Mpungu/Okongo road, was of the opinion that the allowable size for harvesting is 42 centimetres in diameter.
But, the Chinese logger insisted, his company would not be interested in cutting small trees because it would not be profitable.
Be that as it may, the Chinese national acknowledged that his company has harvested African rosewood, saying the remaining pile along the national road was still there due to the plummeting price of timber in China.
This company runs a rudimentary industrial plant at Nkurenkuru where the harvested trees are being cut in blocks or planks, of which 70% to 80% are exported through Walvis Bay to China, the Chinese national acknowledged.
The rest, he said, are being sold locally or in South Africa.
He was also adamant that the company’s operations are legal because it has paid between N$300 and N$450 per tree to a farmer who got the requisite harvesting permit from the agricultural ministry.
‘Two-way’ business
“The local farmer makes money to pay for the development of his farm. We harvest the wood, we pay him [the farmer] and he got a solar system, put up a new house and new fence. It’s a two-way business,” the Chinese national said.
A farmer, Fillipus Shikwambi, a teacher at a Rundu primary school, agreed that it is a “two-way” business. He said he has made enough money for the new infrastructure on his farm and in the process cleared enough land for farming.
East of Rundu in the forested area around the Mbambi village there are countless patches where timber is being harvested, presumably for small-scale farmers.
One observer, preferring anonymity, said the harvesting takes place at least every 500 metres to one kilometre apart.
Here, the harvesting operations take place in the bush, seemingly with sophisticated chainsaws and other heavy equipment. At one spot, large piles of usable timber scraps - beautiful and very usable in their own right - were left behind, like a timber graveyard after the choice limbs were cut off.
Along this sandy two-track bush road many kiaat or dolf wood (uhuua in the local dialect) were completely chopped off close to their roots, but the entire tree was left behind, presumably over the drop in prices in China that dissipated interest in this tree.
A forestry official at Rundu, however, was of the opinion that the trees were not yet collected because the loggers are “marking off their territories” while the logging is to continue on another day.
However, the sight of the logged trees leaves others exasperated, even helpless.
“From what I can see all of this is completely out of control; it is uncontrolled and a total waste,” an observer said.
The forestry official at Rundu acknowledged that they cannot always go out into the field to supervise the logging, due to budget constraints; inspections that were once done at least twice a week have shrunk considerably.
No names please
Despite the apparent official approval for the continued harvesting, the loggers and transporters of the timber appear to keep their activities out of public view as much as possible.
Locals claim that the timber is spirited away in the dead of night. The ‘investors’ refuse to reveal their names or the names of their companies. Truckers operating from industrial complexes at Rundu rudely scare off anyone interested in peaking over high fences, and when transporting the timber, they cover it with tarpaulin.
And yet, according to Rundu officials, cases of overharvesting or illegal harvesting are not common. They do, however, acknowledge that while the harvesting permits are given out for a “good cause” it might have opened up a Pandora’s Box, because the outcome of all the clearing - for now at least - remains unknown.
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